Thank you @Matt846 that is very helpful advice. Here is another thread with a lot more responses where I talk a lot about the debt and financial situation in the comments http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1778405-cornell-fysa-or-maryland-honors-college-p1.html
Also, just to add something: I have grown up in a college town in MA and found that Ithaca is similar to my hometown, so Maryland would be significantly different from the last 18 years but Cornell would still be different as well. Also, the proximity to DC is a pretty big plus for me, but for reasons other than polsci